Twilight: Taking a stab at comics

Though the “Twilight” saga has encompassed just about every aspect of popular media as its predecessor juggernaut, the “Harry Potter” franchise, the vampires have now spread their spore to one arena the Hogwarts students have not: comic books. Early this year, Yen Press released Volume 1 of a graphic novel adaptation of the first “Twilight” novel.

It is hard to imagine that “Twilight” diehards wouldn’t want to at least crack the coffin lid on this beautiful little hardcover. A few things it has going for it include full approval by author Stephenie Meyer, who “supervised each and every page” and lush art by Korean illustrator Young Kim. The style is manga-esque — for those of you not familiar with manga, it’s the dominant form of comics in the Eastern world, most prominently in Japan. It has a unique style, kind of an idealized translation of American comics and “Twilight: The Graphic Novel” is, for the most part, a manga. Readers can expect characters with big eyes and a visual language, including lots of symbolism, which is particular to the style.

In this first volume, Young covers about half of “Twilight,” and adapts the story fairly faithfully and straightforward. No surprises here; Meyer’s fans will find the story they’re familiar with, including dialogue and characters. Young’s art will at times make you linger on certain pages, especially when she illustrates the forests around the city of Forks. Be warned: there are no actors’ likenesses and the art is mostly in blacks and whites and grays — Young’s use of color is strictly sporadic and used for impact, such as in dream sequences or when Bella enters the forest.

This is highly recommended for “Twilight” completists but also for manga fans in general and followers of media who may be fascinated by the translation of one genre to another — as well as one culture to another.

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on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Comics, Star.
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